Revenues up 7.6% while expenditure below projection by $6.18 billion

Durrant Pate/ Contributor

The Government of Jamaica’s (GOJ’s) fiscal out-turn for April to July 2024 is performing ahead of target with total revenues up 7.6% while expenditure is running below projection.

Revenues and grants closed the period on $301.88 billion, which is $12.92 billion more than projection. This is an increase of  7.6% relative to the $280.59 billion recorded for the corresponding period in 2023.

‘Capital Revenue’ recorded nil in accordance with the budgeted amount while the ‘Bauxite Levy’ recorded nil relative to the budgeted amount of $193.40 million. Conversely, ‘Grants’ amounted to $3.49 billion, which is $2.39 billion more than the budgeted amount. 

‘Tax Revenue’ closed the period at $270.84 billion, $3.70 billion more than the budgeted amount. ‘Non-Tax Revenue’ of $27.55 billion was reported which is 34.2% more than the budgeted amount. 

Expenditure out-turn

Total Expenditure for April to July 2024 came in at $336.16 billion, which is $6.18 billion below the budgeted amount of $342.34 billion. Recurrent expenditure totalled $316.79 billion, accounting for 94% of overall expenditures. 

Under the recurrent expenditure categories for the review period, all categories excluding wages and salaries and interest are below the budgeted amount: ‘Programmes’ which amounted to $113.31 billion is $4.42 billion below the budgeted amount. 

‘Wages & Salaries’, which totalled $139.25 billion, is $195.70 million more than the budgeted amount. ‘Employee Contribution’ totalled $8.23 billion, which is 13.7% lower than the budgeted amount.

‘Compensation of Employees’ amounted to $147.48 billion, which is $1.12 billion below the budgeted amount. ‘Interest’ which totalled $55.99 billion, is 0.6% above the budgeted amount. 

The ‘Fiscal Deficit’ which is the difference between government revenues and spending came in at $34.28 billion, relative to a ‘Projected Deficit’ of $53.38 billion. The ‘Primary Surplus Balance’, which is the difference between government’s revenue and its non-interest expenditure amounted to $21.71 billion, relative to the ‘Budgeted Primary Deficit Balance’ of $2.27 billion in 2023.